Kenya: Health workers increasingly concerned in wake of USAID cuts

In Kenya, the impact of USAID cuts is increasingly being felt. Among those impacted by the cuts is Cecilia, who is mourning her friend Beatrice. Both were sex workers.

Beatrice stopped taking her antiretrovirals when visits from an NGO ceased, concerned of the stigma she would face at a public clinic. Overcome with grief, Cecilia has urged the US president to reverse the cuts.

"It's really sad, really, really sad, as in, due to Trump, things that happened during that season, my friend, my friend had no access of the medication, she was HIV positive. Please, if he can change his mind, if something can happen, please, people are dying. Not even Beatrice. Those are people near me,'' she says.

At least 24 deaths of HIV-positive sex workers in Kenya have been reported, who, like Beatrice, in good health until aid was slashed by the United States early last year.

Daisy Kwala, Program Coordinator Bar Hostess Empowerment and Support Programme, fears there could ber many more.

"With or without the stop-work order, sex work has not stopped. So with the stop-work order, the only difference is now the sex worker is not able to access commodities, they are not able to get condoms, they are not able to get their ARVs, and they are still selling sex there. So for us, this puts the entire community at increased risk, especially for the new HIV infection, because a sex worker who is living with HIV and is still selling sex, they are not maybe able to even afford the condom. They will still sell the sex, they will still meet six to ten people in a day, and that puts the entire community at risk."

Trump's deputy assistant secretary for Africa visited Nairobi earlier this moth, seeking to champion a partership based on 'trade not aid'. He has denied any US responsibility for deaths among sex workers.